Feminism isn't popular among American women. In part that is because all ideologies reduce a complex reality to something thinner and more manageable. Ideologies--religious, psychological, financial, political--often pixelize the world, in some cases so that our eyes slide by the worst parts. That helps us live at peace with ourselves. Other ideologies, while reductive, insist we stare at the worst aspects of life on this planet.
This came to mind as I read an article by Jenny Diski in which she mentioned in passing the four different waves of feminism in my time, resulting today in "unequal pay, unresolved work and child-care balance, and still marrying, forever marrying men." Reading that it occurred to me that perhaps the inability of feminism to succeed might be rooted in how its success gets measured.
Judging feminism a failure because women still marry men sets too high a bar. About 385 million years ago our ancestors began the male/female hookup. Changing genes with a manifesto might not work. On the other hand, President Obama has appointed many judges, and nearly 45% of them are women. That's an advance over, say, what George Washington or Abraham Lincoln did. Perhaps justice for women is gaining ground.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
elitist
Post a Comment